Should we leave Chad?
The Irish government has announced that it is withdrawing its contingent among the peacekeeping force stationed in Chad.
Reducing commitment to the peacekeeping operation really sends the wrong signals. The long serving Chadian dictator, Idriss Deby, would dearly like to see the back of it so that he an his cronies could get on with siphoning the country’s wealth into their own pockets. Over the years Ireland’s reputation as a country has been immensely enhanced by our presence in UN peacekeeping missions.
The trimming of overseas involvement is in line with the McCarthy report. This canonical document’s author is wedded to the maintenance of useless state frippery like armies. If he was really committed to worthwhile savings he would have recommended the disbandment of the army altogether.
What does it do? Does anyone really think it’s capable of putting up a fight were this country to be invaded. Maybe against the armed forces of somewhere like Sao Tome e Principe or the Swiss Guard if they were pissed.
And look at the amount that the government would save. Not only would there be no army salaries to pay but barracks could be closed and sold off for development as brothels and alternative health resorts, while the increasingly obsolete equipment could be hawked to film crews. Fishery protection vessels could be turned into prison hulks (most of them are leaking anyway), while search-and-rescue helicopters could be knocked off to people wanting to leave the country in a hurry and on the QT. What’s more no armed forces, no need for a Department of Defence, and even better a minister of Defence. The savings would be mega….
But the McCarthy report didn’t recommend this because, in spite of all their uselessness, McCarthy and Co. see the armed forces as potentially having an important role in Ireland’s future. It might come in useful in case those lefties ever seemed capable of introducing real change here. In that even the army could be relied upon to step in and restore law and order.
And let’s face it none of the boys themselves really mind leaving Chad. It’s all desert and it must be murder getting a pint there, and as visiting government delegations have found it’s too far from the coast to be a serious junket destination.
